A Chinese Ghost Story

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A Chinese Ghost Story

Directed by	Ching Siu-tung
Produced by	Tsui Hark
Written by	Pu Songling (novel) Yun Kai-chi
Starring	Leslie Cheung Joey Wong Wu Ma
Music by	Romeo Díaz James Wong
Editing by	David Wu
Distributed by	Hong Kong Legends
Release date(s)	March 23, 1987
Running time	98min.
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Budget	$5,600,000 (estimated)
Followed by	A Chinese Ghost Story Part II
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

A Chinese Ghost Story (Chinese: 倩女幽魂; pinyin: qiànnǚ yōuhún; Wade-Giles: Ch'ien-nü Yu-hun, literal meaning: "The Spirit of a Beauty") is a 1987 Hong Kong movie starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Wu Ma, directed by Ching Siu-tung and produced by Tsui Hark.

The story was inspired (but extensively modified) by and could be considered a loose cinematic presentation of the Qing Dynasty short story writer Pu Songling's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

The movie was immensely popular in Hong Kong and several Asian countries when released and made a major star of its female lead, Joey Wong. It was one of the first Asian films to extensively use modern (for the time) special effects and it also sparked a movie trend of period ghost flicks in the industry.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Ning (Leslie Cheung) is a timid tax collector whose line of work requires him to travel to rural areas to perform his job. During one of his regular trips, he is side-tracked from his duties when his account ledgers are soaked by a downpour and he eventually gets lost in the wilderness trying to find shelter. He soon finds that his surroundings are bathed in an eerie mist and close encounters with predators in the wild are not the only dangers he face, as he catches the eye of Nie (Joey Wong), an alluringly beautiful ghost. Ning is unaware that she is actually the slave of a powerful tree demon who feasts on the souls of men that she lures for him. However, Ning is not a lecherous scoundrel like her other prey and she takes him under her care and soon falls in love with him. The tree demon, outraged at her betrayal, attempts everything within his power to stop their romance and destroy their souls.

Ning, however, is no ghostbuster and enlists the aid of Master Yan (Wu Ma), a Taoist priest, to help free Nie's soul and destroy the tree demon. As with most romances with the supernatural in Chinese mythology, there is little hope of a fairytale ending, which many would come to expect in a Hollywood fairy tale, and their fate is no exception. In the end, the only way to save Nie is to help her soul enter the netherworld so that she may finally find peace, and be able to reincarnate and live a better life. At the end of the movie, Ning is left only with a lingering memory of his beloved whom he loses in the forest forever.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Influences

American director Sam Raimi has borrowed scenes and ideas from A Chinese Ghost Story for use in at least one of the Evil Dead movies and in certain episodes of the television series Xena [1] [2] [3].

The film spawned two sequels: A Chinese Ghost Story Part II, A Chinese Ghost Story Part III

Tsui Hark made an animated version of A Chinese Ghost Story in 1997 (translated to English by VIZ Media). Tsui Hark voiced Ning's pet dog Solid Gold.

There is a TV Series Version of this movie entitled Eternity: A Chinese Ghost Story, a joint production from Taiwan and China, featuring top actors from Taiwan (the leading lady is played by Barbie Hsu, one of the stars of Meteor Garden), Hong Kong, and China.